Hazlehurst Railway Aqueduct

Hazlehurst Railway Aqueduct
Near Leek
October 2011

I saw this aqueduct when I visited the Caldon last year and whilst I managed to get a photo of the canal and river aqueducts, the aqueduct over the abandoned railway tracks seemed inaccessible. This time the offside moorings were vacant and I saw a small path down the embankment to the recently cleared track.

Another for my collection.

Hazelhurst River Aqueduct

Hazelhurst River Aqueduct
Caldon Canal
November 2010

There are actually three aqueducts at Hazelhurst Junction, the main canal over canal structure everyone knows and then there is the river aqueduct in the adjacent field.

The third aqueduct crosses the abandoned railway line, but I couldnt find a way down to the trackbed - so it will have to wait for another visit.

Hazelhurst Aqueduct

Hazelhurst Canal Aqueduct
Caldon Canal
November 2010

This perhaps one of the finest aqueducts on the system. Maybe not from an architectural perspective but it does belong to a very elite club of aqueducts which carry a canal over a canal.

The whole set up of the Caldon and its Leek Arm is a bit odd with seveal realignments as the feeder was added and then made navigable. The locks you see today are the third version.

Froghall Aqueduct

Froghall Aqueduct
Caldon Canal
November 2010

This rarely visited aqueduct carries the far end of the Caldon over a tributory of the Churnet at Froghall Wharf, beyond the impossibly low tunnel.

Special only due to its inacessibility.

Leek Aqueduct

Leek Aqueduct
Caldon Canal
November 2010


Update October 2011


A further visit provided an opportunity for a further view:

The Caldon is blessed with a number of aqueducts but perhaps the humblest is the structure at the far end of the Leek Arm. This carried the canal over a river and on for quarter of a mile to a teminus now occupied by a scrayard.

The watercourse is no more and the channel has been infilled, leaving the aqueduct as an overengineered footbridge to the winding hole where the feeder from the Rudyard reservoir runs in.